The latest news on avoiding dairy products if you are lactose intolerant, have milk allergies, are a vegan, or want to keep kosher.

The Lactose Intolerance Clearinghouse Has Moved.

My old website can be found at www.stevecarper.com/li I am no longer updating the site, so there will be dead links. The static information provided by me is still sound.

For quick offline reference, you can purchase Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog as an ebook on Smashwords.com or Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com or a whole lot of other places that Smashwords is suppose to distribute the book to. Almost 100,000 words on LI, allergies, milk products, milk-free products, and the genetics of intolerance, along with large helpings of the weirdness that is the Net.

I suffer the universal malady of spam and adbots, so I moderate comments here. That may mean you'll see a long lag before I remember to check the site and approve them. Despite the gap, you'll always get your say. I read every single one, and every legitimate one gets posted.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Here's a phrase that the quack supplement industry hates: "Your body doesn't absorb extra vitamins. All you get from taking vitamin supplements is expensive urine." There are many web pages devoted to "debunking" this as a myth. What none of them bother to mention was that the phrase came about to combat the supplement quacks who were pushing megadoses of vitamins as "cures" for all what ails ya. They were truly ripoffs.

After the megadose crazy faded, the antioxidant fad began. Large doses of Vitamins A and E were supposed to protect from heart disease and cancer. Except that they don't.

You do need some vitamins, of course. Getting the RDA of all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients is essential. A good diet would provide those, if only more Americans had good diet habits. Since most don't an ordinary multi-vitamin pill couldn't hurt.

Are there any supplements you should take? Yes. As I've posted many times, you probably aren't getting enough calcium and vitamin D. Dr. Marc Siegel backs me up on this in an article from Fox News.

Siegel said proton pump inhibitors (medicines like Nexium or Protonix), which treat acid reflux symptoms, may block the body's absorption of vitamins B12 and D, so anyone on those medicines should have their levels checked regularly. ...

CalciumYou should take 500 to 1,000 milligrams of calcium every day, especially if you are a post-menopausal female, Siegel said. Calcium is essential for keeping bones strong and preventing them from breaking.

Women should continue to get their calcium from outside sources, even if they are taking a supplement, Siegel said.

Strict vegans may be at risk for low levels of vitamin B12 so that's one additional supplement worth taking by them.

About Me

I'm lactose intolerant. I wrote the book on the subject. Literally. Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living with Lactose Intolerance is its name.
I've researched everything on the subject of lactose intolerance for 30 years. I know just about everything about living without dairy products. That means I've been able to help people with dairy protein allergies, vegans, those who want to keep kosher, and others who want to reduce, limit, or eliminate dairy from the diet.
I keep an eye out for information that might be useful. You can see a lot of it at my website, Steve Carper's Lactose Intolerance Clearinghouse (www.stevecarper.com/li). The Milk Free Bookstore and the Product Clearinghouse sections have something for everybody. But the site got too big to update regularly and too cluttered to find information easily.
That's why I started this blog. It really does cover the planet for lactose- and dairy-related items. I think I have the only blog in the world that does this.
So please check it out regularly. Send me items you think may be of interest. Ask me questions: I answer every one, either here or by email. stevecarper@cs.com